This is the dumbest example of self-dealing cronyism that I have have read this week. (via Rick Perlstein)

The Bush administration said Tuesday it will fight to keep meatpackers from testing all their animals for mad cow disease.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture tests less than 1 percent of slaughtered cows for the disease, which can be fatal to humans who eat tainted beef. But Arkansas City-based Creekstone Farms Premium Beef wants to test all of its cows.

Larger meat companies feared that move because, if Creekstone tested its meat and advertised it as safe, they might have to perform the expensive test, too….

The Agriculture Department argued that widespread testing could lead to a false positive that would harm the meat industry. U.S. District Judge James Robertson noted that Creekstone sought to use the same test the government relies on and said the government didn't have the authority to restrict it. (emphasis mine)

Oh yeah, I have yer free markets right here. The markets are free, so long as the Republican party and Bush Administration's large political donor interests in the big corporate cattle industry are fat and happy. Screw the entrepreneur who saw a way to up-market his own cattle by providing an additional value-added service to his consumers that was his own, personal choice to make for his own cattle on his own damn farm. Is that about it?

Rick sums this up perfectly: "There's your conservatism, America: not extremism in defense of liberty. State socialism in defense of Mad Cow."

Just when you think the Bush Administration can't get any more ridiculous…

Mercifully, Rick Perlstein has come up with a fun party game to go along with this wretched story that I thought could be fun for all of us as well. Says Rick:

Let's have some fun and pretend what the world would be like if other people thought like the Bush administration thinks. Here's my entry; you can propose your own in the comments.

Chicago-based singles-bar habitué Lewis P. Smith wants to get an AIDS test. More successful Chicago studs fear that move because, if Smith gets tested and advertises his sperm as safe, they might have to perform the expensive test, too.

In the wake of ever-increasing, champagne-sodden and then some celebutante driving incidents, studio prexy X. Pensive Suit orders that all actors and actresses be issued their own personal minion to drive them about from one party to another so they can party into the wee hours without running into curbs or over small shrubberies or lawn fountains. Rival prexy B. G. Ego, who happens to be a big GOP fundraiser among the Path to 9/11 set, complains to his pal Karl over quail wings that cheap minions are difficult to find, what with the recent crackdown on illegal immigration and all, and that his celebutantes ought to be allowed to drive while inebriated, high, and practically passing out, because what's the harm in that?

OK, before I try to think early this morning, I must say that I was dumbfounded when I first saw about this the other day. IIRC, it has ALWAYS been legal for a firm to do things MORE stringently than the guvmint required.

Either that or the ads for Hebrew National Hot Dogs were lying to us all those years when they claimed to have more stringent rules for their products becuz they answered to a “higher power.”

News Release:
The Westminister Kennel Club announced today that the rules for “Best In Show” would no longer require that the Champions participating actually be pure bred canines. This change came about due to the protests and law suits filed by the owners and breeders of mixed breeds, formerly known as “Mutts.”

The Mutts claimed discrimination due to the inherently classist nature of requiring detailed breeding notes and history on all participants.

Queen Elizabeth II, the Vanderbilt, Astor, and Rockefeller families could not be reached for comment.

US Senate candidate Squeaky M. Clean has formally announced that he will submit himself to comprehensive drug testing as well as a rigorous IQ test and release all results to the public in a bid to bolster his run for the US Senate.

The US Senate, where many members are afraid of Mr Clean setting an unwanted precedent, is set to vote on SR 000 which would outlaw all such voluntary drug and IQ testing…….

Fledgling news network RNN (Real News Network) announces that it will start actually fact-checking assertions made by politicians who it interviews in order to more accurately report the news of the day and help create a more informed citizenry, and furthermore, that pundits who show a track record of being laughably incorrect about everything will be fired.

Roger Ailes, GOP-shill chairman of the Fox “alleged” news network, complains to his buddy Dick Cheney while on a pensioner quail hunt that factual accuracy is far too high a standard to bear, that Sean Hannity is a nice guy who needs the job, and besides, how would he be able to pass along all those RNC press releases?

Seriously, though, the Government really can’t actually stop that company from doing their own testing, CAN THEY???

-MS

Michael – apparantly the USDA controls the kits that are used for the testing and are refusing to give them to the private companies that want to do their own testing.

Oh and Christy – you know the situation is ridiculous when even Lou Dobbs not only runs the story, but makes it the subject of his poll (altho he takes the stand that the Gov’t should be responsible for testing every head)

Rayne at 15 — I tried the story out on my WSJ-reading, investment-class-loving husband last night, and he looked at me as if I had gone nutso. And then asked me if that was a joke post from The Onion or something.

It is this sort of idiocy that gives us a large wedge opportunity between the “true believer no matter what” types and the “maybe these people don’t have my best interests at heart after all” potential doubters in the formerly more rational, pragmatic wing of the GOP. At least on some surface level anyway. Mr. ReddHedd is much more attuned to the business mindset than I am, and he was appalled by this, but not surprised — said it sounded like intervention on behalf of money cronies to him — which is exactly what it sounded like to me.

The BGH controversy redux, except this time they’v upped the ante. What is it about the `ow lobby (and I ask a person who grew up on a dairy farm…oh, I just answered my own question. No more family farms–just big corps). And then there was the Oprah controversy as well. They want us to eat meat and drink milk–so all american. Even if it kills us.

I hope we are noticing that this could be a bright, shiny object. We’re concerned about government intervention preventing a company from doing testing as competitive differentiation…

When the so-called “false positive” the government fears may really disclose the disgusting degree of contamination in our entire beef supply.

It’s rather like the claims of “state secrets” to shut up Sibel Edmonds; she might disclose something that threatens us, they say, when the truth is likely that “Us” is the administration and not “Us” the citizens of the United States.

Oh yeah, I have yer free markets right here. The markets are free, so long as the Republican party and Bush Administration’s large political donor interests in the big corporate cattle industry are fat and happy. Screw the entrepreneur who saw a way to up-market his own cattle by providing an additional value-added service to his consumers that was his own, personal choice to make for his own cattle on his own damn farm. Is that about it?

Yesterday I contacted a local with beef cattle to get a hind portion of beef. Talking to my hub about it, the cost & buying another freezer, I said did you hear that the adm is fighting testing for madcow & he said, “What is the matter with these people?”

James Smith of Smith Electric Car Has unveiled a new vehicle that has a top speed of 110mph and a range of 300 miles and uses no gasoline at all. It is fueled entirely by electricity provided by a typical residential 100v outlet.

Smith Electric is currently under investigation by the Dept of Transportation for violating CAFE standards. In a press release, Bush appointee Mr. Wood U. Buzzoff, stated that “American automobiles must be rated on gas consumption standards. Since The SmithyCar does not burn gasoline it cannot be evaluated under the CAFE statute and therefore cannot be sold in the US”.

James Smith of Smith Electric Car Has unveiled a new vehicle that has a top speed of 110mph and a range of 300 miles and uses no gasoline at all. It is fueled entirely by electricity provided by a typical residential 100v outlet.

Smith Electric is currently under investigation by the Dept of Transportation for violating CAFE standards. In a press release, Bush appointee Mr. Wood U. Buzzoff, stated that “American automobiles must be rated on gas consumption standards. Since The SmithyCar does not burn gasoline it cannot be evaluated under the CAFE statute and therefore cannot be sold in the US”.

It’s early and I’m barely awake. I see the joke-name but is any of this true?

James Smith of Smith Electric Car Has unveiled a new vehicle that has a top speed of 110mph and a range of 300 miles and uses no gasoline at all. It is fueled entirely by electricity provided by a typical residential 100v outlet.

Smith Electric is currently under investigation by the Dept of Transportation for violating CAFE standards. In a press release, Bush appointee Mr. Wood U. Buzzoff, stated that “American automobiles must be rated on gas consumption standards. Since The SmithyCar does not burn gasoline it cannot be evaluated under the CAFE statute and therefore cannot be sold in the US”.

Between the pollution and the food supply, BushCo is really trying to turn planet earth into the Death Star.

James Smith of Smith Electric Car Has unveiled a new vehicle that has a top speed of 110mph and a range of 300 miles and uses no gasoline at all. It is fueled entirely by electricity provided by a typical residential 100v outlet.

Smith Electric is currently under investigation by the Dept of Transportation for violating CAFE standards. In a press release, Bush appointee Mr. Wood U. Buzzoff, stated that “American automobiles must be rated on gas consumption standards. Since The SmithyCar does not burn gasoline it cannot be evaluated under the CAFE statute and therefore cannot be sold in the US”.

It’s early and I’m barely awake. I see the joke-name but is any of this true?

Just by asking the question you have satisfied Christy’s point of the exercise. Although I am no expert and would need to do some research, there have been many allegations that the development of electric cars have been seriously hampered by the auto and oil industries. Can you imagine the Bush admin supporting any vehicle that doesn’t need oil? I can’t.

You are early risers at FDL, aren’t you?
Very sad situation, your govt not wanting to protect you, as it will cost the multi rich too much. Dead people, just collateral damage.
I’m of to bed, will be back for late nite and a read of all the other stories. Keep up the good work. Love this place.

Good morning, Rayne. Thank you for your comment yesterday about MeetUp. I became familiar with MeetUp when I was campaigning for Howard Dean and organizing house parties. Unfortunately, I discovered that the interest in progressive MeetUps around here were nil. I confess, I haven’t looked into it lately but I did check on progressive activities on the internet from time to time, looking for events or gatherings in my immediate area – nada.

The last time I participated in anything with a group was when my mom and I attended an anti-war demonstration in Myrtle Beach which was net-organized as part of peace demonstrations throughout the country (cannot remember the organization’s name at this time – United for Peace, maybe).

It was the saddest thing you ever saw, such a small group of people. It was very depressing. My mom enjoyed it however. She’s the only person I know who’d go with me to such a thing! My Dem friends (last time I counted, there were 2!) were and aren’t particularly interested in such things. Anyway, I’m blessed with a great mom.

But thanks again for the suggestion. Pretty much given up on this town and am getting out as soon as I am financially able.

Compounding USDA’s lax practices has been its refusal to allow beef processors to independently test cattle for mad cow disease. In 2004, Creekstone Farms, a Kansas processor of black Angus beef with a large Japanese clientele, asked for permission to test its 300,000 cattle for BSE using a $500,000 testing site it had built to USDA specifications.

But the agency ruled that the BSE test was licensed only for “surveillance” of animal health, and rejected Creekstone’s request because it implied “a consumer safety aspect” that was “not scientifically warranted.”

The agency invoked the 1913 Virus-Serum-Toxin Act, intended to assure the safe supply of animal vaccines, as its authority for barring private testing.

According to the article, Britain and Japan test all their cows, and most European countries test all over 24 months. The Bush administration’s preferred approach is to do ineffective but cheaper testing, and pressure other countries to relax their standards so their cronies can export to them.

I hope we are noticing that this could be a bright, shiny object. We’re concerned about government intervention preventing a company from doing testing as competitive differentiation…

When the so-called “false positive” the government fears may really disclose the disgusting degree of contamination in our entire beef supply.

It’s rather like the claims of “state secrets” to shut up Sibel Edmonds; she might disclose something that threatens us, they say, when the truth is likely that “Us” is the administration and not “Us” the citizens of the United States.

Rayne, You may be correct. From the Denver Post “Melamine may be in human food chain.”

an Israeli defense contractor has developed and tested a device proven to be highly effective in combating RPG’s & ATGM’s

Rummy’s own Office of Force Transition recommended it after field testing the various Active Protection Systems

But the U.S. Army scuttled the effort. Why? Pentagon sources tell NBC News — and internal Army documents seem to confirm — that Army officials came to see Trophy as a threat to the Army’s effort to field an RPG defense system as part of the biggest procurement program in Army history, the $200 billion Future Combat System (FCS).

just so ya know, one of the key elements in the campaign to keep the Israeli system from being awarded was a whole bunch of contractual hooey about testing (ya have to read Lisa’s story and the pdf link therein) oh yeah, there’s a single false positive thrown in for full measure

and did I mention the aforementioned 200 Billion dollar boondoogle wont be field-ready until . . .2012

I’m almost done reading Marion Nestle’s book,What to Eat. She talks alot about the assinine and dangerous laws supposedly in place to protect us. Ha,protecting industry is all that matters,industry will NOT do the right thing when no one is watching. Not to mention our lame ass congress who goes along with this crap,often behind closed doors. I’ve been studying this stuff for awhile now(I want to start an organic farm and farmer’s market,which btw should not BE this difficult),and it’s astounding what goes on just in regard to how food is labeled.

Remember when the beef industry tried suing Oprah for just saying “yuck,don’t think I’ll eat another hamburger” on teevee? THAT’S the power we’re dealing with here. The bastards don’t care who gets sick as long as they can hoard as much wealth as possible.

Just by asking the question you have satisfied Christy’s point of the exercise. Although I am no expert and would need to do some research, there have been many allegations that the development of electric cars have been seriously hampered by the auto and oil industries. Can you imagine the Bush admin supporting any vehicle that doesn’t need oil? I can’t.

I have a very nasty suspicion that’s EXACTLY what happened. Bush refused to meet with auto industry executives until AFTER the election. He came to meet a Repug Senate candidate only 40 miles from Detroit, but couldn’t be bothered to meet with the industry folks until after the election — might even have hurt the Repug Senate and Gubernatorial candidates by not making an effort to reach out to the auto industry. That’s how badly Bush needed to avoid meeting with the auto industry, willing to throw in the towel on a couple of key races.

I suspect it’s because the auto industry has been very close to having a commercially viable solution that does not rely on oil; the lack of infrastructure to support it is a major drawback, and creating the infrastructure would require investment by the oil industry. Not going to happen since that cuts into profits.

Her husband was on Washington Journal (briefly) this a.m. Said he spent most of one day w/Citibank trying to get this straightened out. Iirc, there’s supposed to be a news conference wrt this later today.

So can the Dems get on this bus and start hammering home the realities of various forms of corporate welfare? How hard is it for them to get across the message that we, as taxpayers, are paying the government to protect industry from any responsibility for killing us, all thanks to the Christian Bush administration?

there’s a law on the books in 13 (?) states that allows groups like the Texas Cattlement to sue for “disparagement”

believe it’s genesis was in defending genetically altered foods – it’s poorly written and vague (I’m shocked !) and it is to Oprah’s legal team’s credit that they were able to redirect the case to one of Ms Winfrey’s first amendment rights :)

Silliness with industry should include laws that prevent you from disparging agricultural crops or preventing you from labeling your product free from BGH in milk. Of course, the new “organic” standards at USDA are right up there. None of this needs to be made up.

Here’s the deal, Christy, and I’ve studied it quite a bit. You have to think outside the box on this one. There is a very good reason why they don’t want to test for mad cow, and why they don’t want any beef producers to use their mad cow test. And, it’s exactly what they are actually saying it is: false negatives! The mad cow test performed in the USA on only 1% is not the most accurate test for mad cow. And, they know it! Testing more, would give even more false negative results. Better not to test than to find any positive results; and even better not to test than to show that your testing is inaccurate and full of false negatives for mad cow! Feel better now; feel more secure eating good old American beef? I think not…

Some eager-beaver Goodling-type Citibank employee making an all-too-human decision?

Or an automated program activated by activity on her account from overseas — commercially spying on her personal finances to make this determination?

Or perhaps the government itself tripped this?

What’s to stop Citibank from doing this to any American making the same decision whenever any of us travel overseas? What’s to stop them from shutting down our accounts if we communicate with persona non grata, even on accident here in the States?

Hey, Waccamaw! No, I was talking about G-ville, of course. Many more progressive up your way – I know you don’t believe me, but it’s true cuz I’ve looked! Of course, the A-ville influence makes a difference.

But down here, despite the size of this city, which is growing exponentially, well, poor ole progressives are just few and far between. Also, there is enormous pressure to keep one’s mouth shut. It’s quite oppressive in nature. You’d think by now, that would have changed, but it hasn’t.

So can the Dems get on this bus and start hammering home the realities of various forms of corporate welfare?

I expect it’s another grassroots party vs. the money party situation. That may mean we “don’t have the votes” but it’s no reason for our grassroots party people not to speak out.

How hard is it for them to get across the message that we, as taxpayers, are paying the government to protect industry from any responsibility for killing us, all thanks to the Christian Bush administration?

Since I’m sure these threats are more dangerous to “the most vulnerable,” this is really ripe for “won’t someone think of the children!,” too.

I’m almost done reading Marion Nestle’s book,What to Eat. She talks alot about the assinine and dangerous laws supposedly in place to protect us. Ha,protecting industry is all that matters,industry will NOT do the right thing when no one is watching. Not to mention our lame ass congress who goes along with this crap,often behind closed doors. I’ve been studying this stuff for awhile now(I want to start an organic farm and farmer’s market,which btw should not BE this difficult),and it’s astounding what goes on just in regard to how food is labeled.

Remember when the beef industry tried suing Oprah for just saying “yuck,don’t think I’ll eat another hamburger” on teevee? THAT’S the power we’re dealing with here. The bastards don’t care who gets sick as long as they can hoard as much wealth as possible.

Can we get some background on what these meat industry b@st@ards eat and publish that? Because I’m pretty damn sure it’s gonna be organic only.

From my field: The Bush administration said Tuesday it will fight to keep U. S. corporations from considering the grades and other academic achievements of new employees hired directly from U.S. universities.

The Administration argued that widespread consideration of academic records could lead to false positives (e.g., high grades achieved by cheating) that would harm the economy as well as the reputation of the university system.

I lived in England before Mad Cow was deemed to be a problem for humans and the Bush Admin is playing the same game, only worse.

The UK Gov said that Mad Cow couldn’t transmit across species, while at the same time saying that they didn’t know how it had already crossed species from sheep to cow. It was widely reported at the time that a Mad Cow epidemic was a real possibility, but the Gov chose to ignore it and cover up instead of deal with the problem – until it was too late. In the end, they had to burn all their cattle and it was a huge, costly disaster that could have been avoided.

The same here. Why don’t they just deal with the problem? In the single day that the first Mad Cow case came up, they lost 2 billion dollars. How much could it cost to do this properly? It doesn’t matter. Bush doesn’t care about stuff like this. He increased the arsenic in our drinking water too. Remember that?

George Will – The Case for Conservatism in his column today, is a dash from reality as he defines what liberalism is. The sucker must be desparate to be writing this. IF a Poster on FDL is in search of easy pickings… .

Citibank froze the assests of Haleh Esfandiari, the American being held in Iran because now she’s considered a resident there.citibank customer service

we realy are in the Twilight Zone, Kafka’s Twilight Zone.

You know what bugs me about this?

What tripped Citibank’s decision to freeze her assets?

Some eager-beaver Goodling-type Citibank employee making an all-too-human decision?

Or an automated program activated by activity on her account from overseas — commercially spying on her personal finances to make this determination?

Or perhaps the government itself tripped this?

What’s to stop Citibank from doing this to any American making the same decision whenever any of us travel overseas? What’s to stop them from shutting down our accounts if we communicate with persona non grata, even on accident here in the States?

Ridiculous.

just the idea that once she was jailed, that made her a resident was enough to make me scream my head off and then I come here and it’s the bizrarrro world decision to keep fighting for the right to keep our beef supply safe for BigAgra.

Some days it doesn’t pay to get up, but on the other hand the first 45 minutes of Washington Journal was call-ins on the Thompson announcement. I laughed till I cried.

Hi Pups
There has been a ton of discussion about the Libby afair over at many right-wing blogs..They are still in a tissy fit whether Plame was Covert or not…
I thought Libby was convicted for Lying to prosecutors..why are they still stuck on that point and can’t face facts..
You can’t lie!!

I’m almost done reading Marion Nestle’s book,What to Eat. She talks alot about the assinine and dangerous laws supposedly in place to protect us. Ha,protecting industry is all that matters,industry will NOT do the right thing when no one is watching. Not to mention our lame ass congress who goes along with this crap,often behind closed doors. I’ve been studying this stuff for awhile now(I want to start an organic farm and farmer’s market,which btw should not BE this difficult),and it’s astounding what goes on just in regard to how food is labeled.

Remember when the beef industry tried suing Oprah for just saying “yuck,don’t think I’ll eat another hamburger” on teevee? THAT’S the power we’re dealing with here. The bastards don’t care who gets sick as long as they can hoard as much wealth as possible.

Two books come to mind that are directly related to the issues in this thread.

The first is The Dirty Truth, The Oil and Chemical Dependency of George W. Bush by Rick Abraham (October, 2000). This book was out just before the election of 2000 and it contains everything that Bush did for business in Texas that he was about to do to the rest of us nationally. Absolutely unbelieveable the lengths gone to in order to permit industry to evade its responsibilities as “citizens” in this country. If you want the Santa Clara-granted benefits you need to act as a good citizen.

The second is The Pathological Protein, Mad Cow, Chronic Wasting, and Other Deadly Prion Diseases by Philip Yam (July, 2006) an eye-opening narrative about the first cases of BSE in Britain and the lengths to which industry and government go to cover up the incidence of the disease and the pervasive presence of the rogue proteins in question.

Both books at least give an idea of what we are up against in terms of confronting the united front that industry and its shills present to the rest of the world as we try to exist in a somewhat healthy environment for our families, particularly for our developing kids.

OT-Christy, I emailed you about something else this afternoon. I’m going out to dinner and will be out most of the evening but I’l check back later.

Today it was announced that because the Smithsonian was not willing to upset the Bush administration with an accuarate exhibition on the topic of Global Warming that is might as well come under new leadership. The new Creationism Museum from Kentucky will take over management of the Smithsonian. Evolutionary exhibits will be removed and placed in the closet. The Natural History Museum will be closed until humans can be arranged into the dinosaur displays.

Bank of America partnered with Diebolt will no longer be providing receipts for transactions at there 120 million US ATM’s. BofA states that you will just have to trust us that your transaction counted.

BofA partnering with the Healthy Forest initiative to save trees by saving paper and using the same successes found in electronic voting.

I don’t know about Wu being all that gung ho about this when they just sentenced their FDA type admin to death for lax enforcement.

I did wonder when I first read about that sentence that it was a message not only to Chinese officials, but to the Bush Administration that the Chinese don’t mess around like Bush does in regards to contaminated food products coming into their country.

U.S. ranks low, just above Iran on new peace index
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States is among the least peaceful nations in the world, ranking 96th between Yemen and Iran, according to a new index released on Wednesday that evaluates 121 nations based on their peacefulness.

How badly did George Will escape from reality today you ask? Try this on for size:

Conservatism embraces President Kennedy’s exhortation to “Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country,” and adds: You serve your country by embracing a spacious and expanding sphere of life for which your country is not responsible.

In letters to US District Court Judge Reggie Walton, Vice President Dick Cheney and other Bush administration officials asked for a suspended sentence for I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby” after his conviction for lying to federal investigators looking into the leak of CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson’s identity. “If Mr. Libby’s so-called perjury is harshly punished,” wrote Cheney, “it will have a chilling effect on the entire politically-motivated leak industry, leading to the collapse of the K Street economy.”

A spokesperson for Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald had, as usual, no comment. He did laugh for quite a while, however, before not commenting.

Christy the most telling thing in your post is in the first sentence… “dumbest example of self-dealing cronyism that I have read this week”. Yep, this week alright. ‘Cause you know next week, there’s gonna be something else… What a lying pack of sheisters…

…
The second is The Pathological Protein, Mad Cow, Chronic Wasting, and Other Deadly Prion Diseases by Philip Yam (July, 2006) an eye-opening narrative about the first cases of BSE in Britain and the lengths to which industry and government go to cover up the incidence of the disease and the pervasive presence of the rogue proteins in question.
…

I think the same thing is happening on a nationwide scale with the melamine contaminations. When anyone in this administrations says “The food supply is safe” do you believe them? Should we believe them? Can we believe them?

From the NYT’s editorial proving that George Will is right about conservatism – it will screw you every chance it gets!

The Supreme Court struck a blow for discrimination this week by stripping a key civil rights law of much of its potency. The majority opinion, by Justice Samuel Alito, forced an unreasonable reading on the law, and tossed aside longstanding precedents to rule in favor of an Alabama employer that had underpaid a female employee for years. The ruling is the latest indication that a court that once proudly stood up for the disadvantaged is increasingly protective of the powerful.

…
The second is The Pathological Protein, Mad Cow, Chronic Wasting, and Other Deadly Prion Diseases by Philip Yam (July, 2006) an eye-opening narrative about the first cases of BSE in Britain and the lengths to which industry and government go to cover up the incidence of the disease and the pervasive presence of the rogue proteins in question.
…

I think the same thing is happening on a nationwide scale with the melamine contaminations. When anyone in this administrations says “The food supply is safe” do you believe them? Should we believe them? Can we believe them?

I don’t know what it’s going to take to wake Americans up to what’s happening,but I do know this: We are not in control of our own food and water in this country. It’s pretty much mostly all owned by people who aren’t loyal to this country.

I’m sick of shareholders being the only factor that matters. If a company makes a billion dollars this year,they have to make more the next year. THIS is the problem. It’s greed at the heart of all this.

Griffin, a former assistant to President Bush’s top political adviser Karl Rove, stepped in as interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas in December, replacing U.S. Attorney Bud Cummins.[…]

How badly did George Will escape from reality today you ask? Try this on for size:

Conservatism embraces President Kennedy’s exhortation to “Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country,” and adds: You serve your country by embracing a spacious and expanding sphere of life for which your country is not responsible.

So in other words, conservatism “embraces” President Kennedy’s exhortation by saying “what he really meant was ‘”Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for yourself, and screw the country!’”

Bank of America partnered with Diebolt will no longer be providing receipts for transactions at there 120 million US ATM’s. BofA states that you will just have to trust us that your transaction counted.

BofA partnering with the Healthy Forest initiative to save trees by saving paper and using the same successes found in electronic voting.

be afraid, be very afraid!
Don’t banks all ready offer the option of no ATM receipt if you don’t want one?, they do here.

Morning all — just got home from the preschool drop-off, and am sucking down my first cuppa coffee. How is everyone this morning?

Thank you FDL. I am great! Youngest daughter home from college, great to catch up and enjoy one another’s company.

Just wish I did not feel quilty that I am able to do this with my children, and parents in Iraq and in the states have lost their children and family members in a horrendous and completely unnecessary war! Damn that Catholic upbringing. Damn those nuns and that blue collar upbringing (my parents pushed fairness, justice and accountability) that fed my conscience. I wish I did not care so much about how my country’s military and our lifestyles effect others on this planet. Life would sure be easier.

In a move designed to protect the military detention program, President Bush today exempted anyone involved in the Global War on Terror from having to comply with the constitutional requirement of habeas corpus . . .

Total # of detainees that have been held at Gitmo: 775.
Total # currently at Gitmo: about 380.
Total # of suicide attempts: over 40, as of last year.
Total # of successful suicides: Four.
Total # of detainees who have had charges filed against them under the Military Commissions Act of 2006: Three.

More successful suicides than charges filed. I’m tempted to add some snark, but don’t trust myself on that right now.
This.
Must.
End.

Elliott @ 50
Citibank froze the assests of Haleh Esfandiari, the American being held in Iran because now she’s considered a resident there.
******************
Citibank said it was acting “in accordance with U.S. Sanctions regulations,” which prohibit U.S. banks from servicing accounts for residents of Iran
*****************
we realy are in the Twilight Zone, Kafka’s Twilight Zone.

////////////

that’ll make it easy for her to get back to the US when she is released (do i really have to mark this /snark?)

Bank of America partnered with Diebolt will no longer be providing receipts for transactions at there 120 million US ATM’s. BofA states that you will just have to trust us that your transaction counted.

BofA partnering with the Healthy Forest initiative to save trees by saving paper and using the same successes found in electronic voting.

be afraid, be very afraid!
Don’t banks all ready offer the option of no ATM receipt if you don’t want one?, they do here.

FWIW, I think most banks offer a no charge option to confirm basic account information (balance, last five deposits, withdrawals, checks) via an 800 number.

I don’t know about Wu being all that gung ho about this when they just sentenced their FDA type admin to death for lax enforcement.

I did wonder when I first read about that sentence that it was a message not only to Chinese officials, but to the Bush Administration that the Chinese don’t mess around like Bush does in regards to contaminated food products coming into their country.

I guess I’ve been bushified because my first take was the Chinese blamed it all one guy, so now they’ll execute him, and voila! the food will be safe.

Elliott @102….
warning to self… do not try snark at 6am with only 1 cuppa onboard…

Great little interview with Amb Joe Wilson on Stephanie Miller… he was even kind about his response about sentencing of Scooter…. “sad day for his family, that a man with his education and breeding has so little regard for the constitution ” (not a direct quote)

Griffin, a former assistant to President Bush’s top political adviser Karl Rove, stepped in as interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas in December, replacing U.S. Attorney Bud Cummins.[…]

How many have resigned in this scandal? When will they throw Rove over?

Does anyone remember when Bush decided to cut an EPA program that was limiting arsenic in our drinking water? Then cried that it was “unfair” to accuse him of allowing more arsenic in our drinking water? What a scumbag!

I have to agree. DH is a physician who sees 2-3 cases of vCJD and familial CJD a year and the problem is the reliability of the testing (and in humans you have to do a brain biopsy to diagnose in a living patient).

Currently, the cattle guys can’t test until the meat is dead and then, unless they quarantine the meat in the mean time, they have to track down where the meat went (because the testing is done on the brain and spinal cord where the prions are concentrated).

The end of this CBC article has info about the expenses, process, and implications for those interested.

And let’s not even get started on deer wasting disease. It has been transmitted to humans (my husband has seen at least one case of this and other suspected ones, though the cases may not have been reported publicly yet) and I refuse to eat venison ever again.

George Will – The Case for Conservatism in his column today, is a dash from reality as he defines what liberalism is. The sucker must be desparate to be writing this. IF a Poster on FDL is in search of easy pickings… .

Will:

The entitlement mentality encouraged by the welfare state exacerbates social conflicts . . .

The entitlement mentality of corporations encouraged by the corporate welfare state exacerbates social conflicts, unbeknownst to the disenfranchised individuals whose social conflicts are being exacerbated.

In a move designed to protect the military detention program, President Bush today exempted anyone involved in the Global War on Terror from having to comply with the constitutional requirement of habeas corpus . . .

Total # of detainees that have been held at Gitmo: 775.
Total # currently at Gitmo: about 380.
Total # of suicide attempts: over 40, as of last year.
Total # of successful suicides: Four.
Total # of detainees who have had charges filed against them under the Military Commissions Act of 2006: Three.

More successful suicides than charges filed. I’m tempted to add some snark, but don’t trust myself on that right now.
This.
Must.
End.

Now.

Serious question:

Can the torturers be tried for war crimes once a new administration comes in that is not going to protect them?

Sorry, sometimes I’m not so good w/the on-line snark. Translation: I listened to a few of the callers *extolling* his qualifications (roughly on a par w/MSM comments since yesterday) and had to change channels. If this is what passes for virtuuuuuuuuuuez to make him a presidential candidate for office………boyz, we’s even worse off than I thought!

How badly did George Will escape from reality today you ask? Try this on for size:

Conservatism embraces President Kennedy’s exhortation to “Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country,” and adds: You serve your country by embracing a spacious and expanding sphere of life for which your country is not responsible.

“[S]phere of life”??? So George (and thereby conservatism) has turned all new-agey on us here? So will he next be trading in the bow-tie for some tie-dye?

George Will: “Conservatism is realism, about human nature and government’s competence.”
It never ceases to astonish me how divorced from reality these people are. They really do live on an alternate planet than the majority of human beings.

WASHINGTON, May 30 — Whatever else may be said about the Supreme Court’s current term, which ends in about a month, it will be remembered as the time when Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg found her voice, and used it.

Both in the abortion case the court decided last month and the discrimination ruling it issued on Tuesday, Justice Ginsburg read forceful dissents from the bench. In each case, she spoke not only for herself but also for three other dissenting colleagues, Justices John Paul Stevens, David H. Souter and Stephen G. Breyer.

But the words were clearly her own, and they were both passionate and pointed. In the abortion case, in which the court upheld the federal Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act seven years after having struck down a similar state law, she noted that the court was now “differently composed than it was when we last considered a restrictive abortion regulation.” In the latest case, she summoned Congress to overturn what she called the majority’s “parsimonious reading” of the federal law against discrimination in the workplace.

To read a dissent aloud is an act of theater that justices use to convey their view that the majority is not only mistaken, but profoundly wrong. It happens just a handful of times a year. Justice Antonin Scalia has used the technique to powerful effect, as has Justice Stevens, in a decidedly more low-key manner. […]

The Bush administration announced today a new initiative. The proposal is meant to amend the groundbreaking NCLB legislation and targets recent studies showing how science skills in American classrooms are not measuring up internationally.

US Department of Education senior staffer, Margaret Spellings, called to task current biology curriculum and severely criticized a long held belief in human reproduction theory.

Spellings began by laying out the problem in the clearest of terms for reporters.

She challenged, “We cannot prepare students for the global economy if we don’t get them to grade level first.”

“We teach our youngsters that conception is a cold, hard fact of an egg being fertilized by chance, that somehow one of a million sperm knows the way and what to do,” she scolded.

Spellings intends to correct the record and childrens minds, offering a higher standard for creation.

“The old science theories profess that a ‘human induced miracle’ occurs even though empirical proof is lacking. There is no way to witness this so called miracle,” she said.

Instead, Spellings proposes, a miracle of a higher nature is at work.

Citing the obvious fallacy in previous critical thinking she intoned that,”No decent person would allow the observatory intrusion necessary during procreation that would establish these previously held norms as fact.”

“It’s like when you close the fridge door,” she remarked. “How do you really know the light is indeed off.”

Indeed. There must be more to creating the miracle than mere chance. Spellings then hits the target with her powerful upshot.

“We intend to have introduced legislation that mandates a revision, in human reproductive biology studies. A human embryo can only be initiated by divine intervention. If a woman is pregnant, clearly it is meant to be so. Federal funds will be tied to faithful adherence of this correction in curriculum.”

How badly did George Will escape from reality today you ask? Try this on for size:

So in other words, conservatism “embraces” President Kennedy’s exhortation by saying “what he really meant was ‘”Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for yourself, and screw the country!’”

I usually does not present itself in an animal until 22 months. So small slaughter plants who do high grade beef are using young animals so the possibility of finding MCD is slight.

The big meat packers slaughter any animal that moves, (old dairy cows) which means older stock where the MCD is more likely to be discovered.

Everybody in the meat packing world knows this and since the higher volume of animals move through the big houses they are at risk.

Oh yea, the US already has the lowest level of testing of any industrialized country.

Bottom line if they did the testing they will find MCD in older stock. The USDA, read Cattlemen’s Association, does not want to the public and the world to know the extent of the problem. So it best to have a few people die instead of messing up the beef business.

Biologists will have their debates about man’s origins, but people of faith can also bring a great deal to the table. For this reason, I oppose the exclusion of either faith or reason from the discussion. An attempt by either to seek a monopoly on these questions would be wrong-headed. As science continues to explore the details of man’s origin, faith can do its part as well.

If you don’t believe in the scientific method, then why should you believe in a test for mad cow disease?
Instead, Tom DeLay should get on the phone with God and find out which cows are sick.

again, I must be bushified because to me, Griffin’s move to Thompson’s campaign reveals who BushCo is backing for the next term.

So…did they encourage a soon-to-be subpoenaed and pilloried Griffin to work on Thompson’s campaign, to get him out of AR and reduce the attention on that USA office while they find another way to corrupt it…

Or did Rove genuinely sign on to Thompson’s campaign, implied by sending his bestest opposition research and election fraudster to help Thompson’s campaign play catch-up to the front runners?

I usually does not present itself in an animal until 22 months. So small slaughter plants who do high grade beef are using young animals so the possibility of finding MCD is slight.

The big meat packers slaughter any animal that moves, (old dairy cows) which means older stock where the MCD is more likely to be discovered.

Everybody in the meat packing world knows this and since the higher volume of animals move through the big houses they are at risk.

Oh yea, the US already has the lowest level of testing of any industrialized country.

Bottom line if they did the testing they will find MCD in older stock. The USDA, read Cattlemen’s Association, does not want to the public and the world to know the extent of the problem. So it best to have a few people die instead of messing up the beef business.

after reading ww at 126, it occurred to me that we do not need to spend any more funds creating protective barriers around the White House. Just circle all the turnip trucks that those highest in government obviously fell off.

Morning all — just got home from the preschool drop-off, and am sucking down my first cuppa coffee. How is everyone this morning?

Thank you FDL. I am great! Youngest daughter home from college, great to catch up and enjoy one another’s company.

Just wish I did not feel quilty that I am able to do this with my children, and parents in Iraq and in the states have lost their children and family members in a horrendous and completely unnecessary war! Damn that Catholic upbringing. Damn those nuns and that blue collar upbringing (my parents pushed fairness, justice and accountability) that fed my conscience. I wish I did not care so much about how my country’s military and our lifestyles effect others on this planet. Life would sure be easier.

Bottom line if they did the testing they will find MCD in older stock. The USDA, read Cattlemen’s Association, does not want to the public and the world to know the extent of the problem. So it best to have a few people die instead of messing up the beef business.

Bagdad: A Washington Senator was seen shopping for rugs in the lower east side of Bagdad yesterday afternoon. When asked to fill out a customs form to take the rug out of Iraq, the mugwump senator became independently frustrated. The Senator claimed it was a gift for his lovely wife, Hadassah and if he filled out the claim form she would know how much he had spent for it. “Plus, I left my wallet in my other vest.”

BSE is caused by a protein, not by a virus or bacterium. It’s not “alive” so it can’t be killed. It can’t be rendered ineffective by ordinary methods. Its presence is passed from mother to child without interruption, and it crosses species boundaries. The immune system does not recognize it, so it does its work without hindrance. In humans, it resembles Alzheimers. The incidence of “Alzheimers” is increasing.

Presumably, testing for BSE in cattle would be expensive. A hint of BSE would put a stop to exports for years. Testing might reveal all sorts of other things in cattle (and other animals), and all sorts of other things about how they’re treated and what they eat, that would make a grocery shopper run cold with fear and disgust.

The Bush administration’s policy of “what’s good for business is good for business” seems remarkably ruthless, selfish and destructive of community and public health. And they call it “public service”.

Hey, Waccamaw! No, I was talking about G-ville, of course. Many more progressive up your way – I know you don’t believe me, but it’s true cuz I’ve looked! Of course, the A-ville influence makes a difference.

But down here, despite the size of this city, which is growing exponentially, well, poor ole progressives are just few and far between. Also, there is enormous pressure to keep one’s mouth shut. It’s quite oppressive in nature. You’d think by now, that would have changed, but it hasn’t.

Hope you’re well and enjoying the beautiful weather.

I was just down your way with my sister, visiting our mom in “Grin”ville, as the locals pronounce it. We went down to spend Mother’s Day with her, and spent a day in Asheville, too. Could not live down there: the local newspaper is truly a rag, the local television news casts are all “if it bleeds, it leads” and alarmist right-wing claptrap, especially anti-immigrant. I just wouldn’t have the fortitude to keep up the progressive fight against such odds in the hometown of Bob Jones University.

The potential cow problem was predictable years ago, once you put “Bush” and “FDA” together in your mind.

Here is the future chicken problem:

“Despite those violations, the Chinese government is on track to get permission to legally export its chickens to the United States — a prospect that has raised concern not only because of fears of bacteria such as salmonella but also because Chinese chickens, if not properly processed, could be a source of avian flu, which public-health authorities fear may be poised to trigger a human …under high-level pressure from China, the USDA passed a rule allowing China to export to the United States chickens that were grown and slaughtered in North America and then processed in China…Now the rule that China really wants, allowing it to export its own birds to the United States, is in the works, said Richard Raymond, USDA’s undersecretary for food safety. Reports in China have repeatedly hinted that only if China gets its way on chicken exports to the United States will Beijing lift its four-year-old ban on importing U.S. beef. Raymond denies any link.”

That article was largely about contaminated Chinese food additives. Witness the fatalism, and the unthinking conflation of “the executive branch” with the public: “So pervasive is the U.S. hunger for cheap imports, experts said, that the executive branch itself has repeatedly rebuffed proposals by agency scientists to impose even modest new safety rules for foreign foods.”

after reading ww at 126, it occurred to me that we do not need to spend any more funds creating protective barriers around the White House. Just circle all the turnip trucks that those highest in government obviously fell off.

That was just my humble entry per Christy’s invitation. Glad you liked it, though. =)

Here is one where I sort of agree but not for their reasons. The cost of testing every single cow is really rather high and would benefit those who made the tests (like Nobel laureate Stan Prusiner). The odds of anyone getting mad cow are astonishingly low-in England with order 1M cattle getting the disease, the epidemic appears to have tapped out at about 150 victims (for genetic reasons, there could be a second wave later, but it would be of the order of 200 more). We have seen 2-3 here. The disease is not transmissible cattle to cattle-it is only the few who have gotten tainted protein supplement. I advocate some testing, but not every cow.

On the other hand, I don’t eat beef so I would bow to the desires of those who do.

Hey, Sixty Something, you’re most welcome. We had some hearing impaired people who were feeling left out from the video part. Being somewhat hearing impaired myself, I was sympathetic to calls for a volunteer to create a transcript.

Got one: The Bush Adm. has decided to forego putting the ingedients of chocolate in chocolate. This becasue of the fact that major benefactor -Hershey complained that the price of cacoa was too high-as was the price of sugar. chocolate will still be called chocolate but will be made from dirt, water, sawdust and chocolate flavorings.

The Presidents’ Abstinance Only Plan has been revised due to the fast that it is a collossal failure-the President is now adopting a “Dildos for Everyone” to appease those science and techie fundamentalists.

Here is one where I sort of agree but not for their reasons. The cost of testing every single cow is really rather high and would benefit those who made the tests (like Nobel laureate Stan Prusiner). The odds of anyone getting mad cow are astonishingly low-in England with order 1M cattle getting the disease, the epidemic appears to have tapped out at about 150 victims (for genetic reasons, there could be a second wave later, but it would be of the order of 200 more). We have seen 2-3 here. The disease is not transmissible cattle to cattle-it is only the few who have gotten tainted protein supplement. I advocate some testing, but not every cow.

On the other hand, I don’t eat beef so I would bow to the desires of those who do.

The reason MCD has not grown in the UK is first the government had all old animals exterminated. Second they test a large percentage of animals. Third and most important the government no longer allows animal proteins to be fed to herbivores.

MCD is a man made creation. Scientist thought that protein was protein regardless of where it came from. So animal by products were fed to essentially vegetarian animals.

The USDA has rules on the books that do not permit the feeding of animal proteins to cows but they are not enforced.

I have to agree. DH is a physician who sees 2-3 cases of vCJD and familial CJD a year and the problem is the reliability of the testing (and in humans you have to do a brain biopsy to diagnose in a living patient).

Currently, the cattle guys can’t test until the meat is dead and then, unless they quarantine the meat in the mean time, they have to track down where the meat went (because the testing is done on the brain and spinal cord where the prions are concentrated).

The end of this CBC article has info about the expenses, process, and implications for those interested.

And let’s not even get started on deer wasting disease. It has been transmitted to humans (my husband has seen at least one case of this and other suspected ones, though the cases may not have been reported publicly yet) and I refuse to eat venison ever again.

Citizen Jane -

Thanks so much for sharing this information. TSE’s [transmissable spongiform encephalopthaies - the set of diseases that include BSE (mad cow), vCJD (human “mad cow”), scapie (sheep)]
are clearly present in US deer and elk. Ican’t recall if TSE have been demonstrated in moose.

Roadkill in much of the US goes into animal feed (or did – I can’t find my ref on current practices at the moment).

As we know from kuru (TSE in cannibals) the incubation period for TSE’s may be decades (kuru developed decades after the end of cannibalism).

So – irrespective of current practices – cerivds with TSE (the cervid form is “chronic wasting disease”) went into animal feed that went to ruminants (cattle, sheep) and poultry that we ate.

(I’m not a vet, so I can only speculate if the deer and elk with brain disease are over-represented in the “road kill” fatalities.)

Citizen Jane, I’mnot certain who the DH in yuor remarks is, but if you havemore links I’d be grateful.

Also, if your husband or you may have the reference for a post-mortem series in US patients with “Alzheimer’s”,, I’d be grateful.

THe series found some of the DAT (dementia Alzheimer’s type) patients were actually victims of MID (multi-infarct dementia). NO big surprsie there.

What was really ominous inthe serail post-portems was the finding that some of the dementia patients had histopath changes c/w TSE.

In other words, the study found a group of people with brain damage consistent with “mad Cow” causes (TSEs) had actually been misdaignosed as having Alzheimers.

IIRC this was either 7% or 15% of the series – huge implications given the number of US patients diagnosed with DAT.

Scaling up from Japan in the CBC article, they test each of 1.3M slaughtered at what I gather is a cost of order $65M per year (at least initially). We slaughter 35M each year, raising this cost to 1.75B per year, an added cost of $50 per cow slaughtered. This sounds about right I think.

The contaminated feedstock is gone from the system except in pockets and it appears the chief problem is meat contaminated with lymph or central nervous system products (while there is evidence for prions in muscle tissue and blood, the bulk is on CNS and lymph system).

Don’t get me wrong, this is a brutal disease, but if you scale from the UK case (1M cattle -> maybe 300 cases over time in people) and we have 3 cattle or so (to be generous I will make it 100) then perhaps one person will get this over time. I would not want to be that person, but I would say that the risk is exceedingly low to tag on the extra cost. Excluding downer cattle from the slaughter house and vigilance of the cattle in general with random tests to see if this is in the system should be ok. Do I trust the Bushies to do this well? NO. But I would trust a future administration to do this well.

In the meantime, the industrial beef system will expose far more people to E Coli which kills hundreds or more every year. I would worry a lot more about that.

I would stay away from venison. There is little evidence so far to suggest transmissibility to humans, but to play it safe I would stay away. I agree with you all about that.

And if you eat beef, go organic. Then the feed issue is totally absent.

First off, banning Creekstone from testing goes against everything good old American business practices stand for. Secondly back about 3 years ago the USDA had informed all cattle producers that they would have to implant a chip in the ankle of each calf born that would record its history as it grew. This would be updated at intervals when the animal was vacinated ect. and would come out at slaughter so that any problem with the meat could be tracked back to point of origin. The technology was developed, the distribution systems set up and producers were ready to do it when all of a sudden the Bush Admn. axed the whole thing. I think implementation was supposed to start in Sept of 05. Repugs were making too much money importing foreign beef and did not want point of origin disclosed. A friend of mine in Nebraska lost a sizable investment in a technology distributorship. So much for caring about the American people.

I’m not seeking to disagree with your specific data or undermine your conclusions, but I have a general intellectual curiosity about prions and and decontamination.

As the prions are incredibly resistant to destruction/deactivation, is it possible the surfaces/facilities previously used to prepare prion-positive livestock slaughterhouses, packing houses, food prep areas) would themselves become point sources of prion contamination?

PS – This is from way upthread, for the truly obsessional, here’s a discussion of TSE and moose.